The invention relates to a device for protecting the mouth during work on the teeth.
During work on teeth, the patient must keep his mouth open. The surgeon can then access the teeth in order to work on them, taking care not to injure the inside of the cheek and/or the tongue.
Therefore, in order to access the teeth, the patient must keep his mouth open, which he does. However, if the surgery is lengthy, the jaws gradually close since keeping the mouth open for a long period is not easy.
The first problem is therefore keeping the mouth open.
The second problem is avoiding injuring the tongue and/or the inside of the cheek.
One old technique, still used, consists of separating the cheek and tongue with cylindrical cotton pads that are placed on either side of the working area and/or between the dental arches.
This technique has been improved by devices that push the tongue towards the rear and hold the mouth open.
To keep the mouth open, there therefore exist devices comprising a thick wedge that is positioned between the interdental arches on the side opposite to the one where the tooth to be treated is located.
In order to protect the mouth, using a blade that is attached to the aforementioned thick wedge and positioned so as to push the tongue behind the blade is known (US 2003/134253 or U.S. Pat. No. 5,730,599).
This blade comprises a part that pushes the tongue, which is connected to a side flap that bears on the other side of the mouth, being positioned between the cheek and the teeth in the vestibule. The blade, deployed flat, forms in front view a kind of eight on its side.
So that this blade is positioned correctly and remains in place, the connection between the dental wedge and the blade is rigid so that it is the positioning of the wedge that orients the blade. The rigidity of the connection is constraining in the design of the device and in the positioning since each mouth is particular whereas the device is of a standard type.
The invention aims to do a solution to the problems mentioned above.